


History Never Asks Permission

by ewinfic



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: #SayNoToHYDRACap, Captain America is not a Nazi, Gen, POV First Person, Speeches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 08:10:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6974944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewinfic/pseuds/ewinfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tired. Angry. Can't sleep. Angry. Angry. Angry.</p><p>This is a message from the Captain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	History Never Asks Permission

"Contractually obligated".

The name of Steve Rogers, my name, was forgotten. For years, the name meant nothing. People had other heroes, gritty or dark or tormented. I was too clean, too noble for a modern hero. The world largely forgot about me while I was gone, and that's okay.

Then I broke the ice, so to speak. I was back. I wasn't too happy at first, but there I was anyway, and the job still needed to be done, and I was the one who needed to do it. The work was hard. The work is always hard. But it was worth doing. Being a hero meant that my name was out there again. And that came with consequences. It came with responsibility. Being on a kid's lunchbox usually means you're a part of that kid's hope for the world. And that's okay, too.

Change came along, and the choices weren't so easy anymore. Nothing was totally black or white, and my loyalties were torn between what I fought for and what I loved. I made the best decisions I could, because not deciding wasn't an option. The choices I made cost me. They cost other people. My life will never be the same, and neither will my image as the world's hero. And even that's okay.

Here's the thing: history never asks you whether you're ready for it. It never asks your permission. It just happens, and you can be on board with it, or you can drown. History has asked a lot from me. I've tried, I've really tried to do right by it. I'll continue to try, not because of any obligation or promise, but because it's who I am. Steve Rogers means something to me as well as the world. It means honor. Truth. Justice. Courage.

And now, because of an artist's vision, it means betrayal.

And that?

I'm not okay with that.

I'm not okay with having my entire life and lifelong motives thrown into question. I'm not okay with everything I've ever done or tried to do undone. I'm not okay with the hundreds of moments where my blood, sweat, and tears were spent hard on the ground, the moments where I struggled to know what was right, the moments where I was ready to die, all turned into a sham. Shredded into confetti and tossed into the wind like so much trash. I'm not okay with everything I've ever fought for being twisted into an excuse for putting more evil out into the world.

I'm not okay with the name of Steve Rogers being dragged through a morass of Nazi _shit_.

That kid with the lunchbox? Believe it or not, O Powers That Be, his hopes and dreams matter. It matters that he believes there can be simple good in the world. It matters that he wants to be a part of it. It matters that he has heroes.

I was created by people who believed that the most powerful weapon against evil in the world wasn't a gun or a tank, but a human being. I was created by faith, and optimism, and the belief that a person can make a difference not just by being strong, but by being good.

I wasn't created to betray the most fundamental concepts of decency in the name of marketing. Or artistic integrity, if that's what we're calling it.

I stand here before you with tears in my eyes and a heart that is torn apart. I thought I knew pain when I was weak and sickly. I thought I understood loss when my best friend died. I thought I had some idea of what consequences were when all of my loyalties were called into question. But all of that pales before this... this dishonor.

I have been broken.

But mark my words: there will be a reckoning.

I will rise from these ashes and shake the filth of your accusations off, and I will once again be the hero that I always set out to be. Do you want to know why?

Because I exist apart from a single comic book. I exist apart from a single movie. I am firmly entrenched in the minds and more importantly the hearts of the courageous and the hopeful. Because hope _is_ courage. Did you forget that in your striving to be bold, that boldness only matters in the service of good?

I am better than what you have decided to make me.

My name is Captain America, and I fight for the things worth believing in.

I will once again be pure and decent. Perhaps not by your hand, but by the hands of many, many others. I will once again champion those who believe in me.

Doubt my will at your peril.

**Author's Note:**

> I was so lathered up by today's bullshit that I wrote this on my PHONE. Now my eyes are sore from squinting, but my heart feels a little better.


End file.
